Back on her feet: Surgery gives 9-year-old a new walk

By NICKI BRUCE LOGAN Herald Lifestyles Editor

Published 7:00 am, Sunday, July 31, 2011

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Courtesy PhotoRyan Rowell’s legs and feet are sporting colorful tie-dyed casts after her surgery in Shriners Children’s Hospital in Houston. Both legs were broken in several places and rotated. For the first time in her young life, Ryan’s feet will point forward and, after concentrated therapy, she will be able to walk normally. Ryan’s mother used her cell phone to take this photo of her feet and legs cushioned on pillows after Ryan was moved to her room at Shriners where she will be for at least another two to three weeks. less

Courtesy PhotoRyan Rowell’s legs and feet are sporting colorful tie-dyed casts after her surgery in Shriners Children’s Hospital in Houston. Both legs were broken in several places and rotated. For the ... more

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Ryan Rowell

Ryan Rowell

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Ryan Rowell is shown walking with her father,Reed Rowell (left) at a baseball game; with her stepfather, ClintOverland, who is helping her at bat (below); and with her mother,Shannon Overland (right), sharing an after game snow cone.

While some 9-year-old kids are going to summer camp, making new friends and sharing homesickness with their counselors, Ryan Rowell’s summer camp consists of a hospital room where nurses and physical therapists are her new friends and counselors serve as her parents.

Instead of running across a gym floor or hiking the canyons, Ryan is in Shriners Orthopedic Hospital in Houston relearning to balance and walk after an excruciating surgery in which surgeons broke both of her legs in order to reset them.

"Before, her legs turned in until her toes almost touched," Reed Rowell, Ryan’s dad, explains.

"Ryan’s surgery was bilateral femoral and tibial, rotational, osteotomies. She was 40 percent rotated at her femurs and 70 percent rotated at her tibias," Reed continues.

In layman’s terms, they broke both of her legs in two places and rotated them in the June 29 surgery.

"This procedure was just the bone surgery," Reed says. "Later on, if needed, they will do the soft tissue (muscle) surgery."

"It has been a hard and painful process for Ryan," adds Ryan’s mother, Shannon Overland.

Ryan’s condition has been with her since birth when she was born premature at 24 weeks, weighing just 1 pound, 14 ounces. Although her very survival as a preemie was a miracle, it was not without serious health problems.

Ryan, who taught herself to walk the first time and manages to keep up with her classmates and friends, was as prepared as she could be before surgery.

"She seemed to be a little nervous," says Reed, who talked from Ryan’s hospital room in Houston. "She was pretty excited about the surgery right up until a couple of weeks before we got here. At that point she seemed to be a little nervous, maybe because she wasn’t sure what to expect."

Her after-surgery physical therapy has been hard — both legs are in casts from her knees to her toes.

"At first she was in physical therapy all day, not always working, but she had to stay there (in the PT department)," Shannon explains. "Now she has progressed to two hour-and-a-half sessions a day."

"A couple of weeks ago, it was scary for her — and for us — but just this week she’s turned the corner," Reed adds. "From walking, she has had to relearn how to balance and thrust and to use her muscles in a different way.

"We’re seeing progress now."

Ryan is expected to be at Shriners for 2-3 more weeks.

"They have guidelines in place that she will have to meet before she can go home, such as take 50 steps with a walker on her own, ride six laps on an oversize trike . . . ," Reed says. "They won’t let her go home until she can meet those guidelines."

He mentions that riding the tricycle is problematic since Ryan has never ridden a bike in her life.

Reed, who grew up in Plainview and now lives in Lubbock where he owns a logistics company, has been in Houston with Ryan since her surgery. Ryan’s mother is a registered nurse in Lubbock and has been with her until last week when she went home to work a week, then was back in Houston.

"I am alternating weeks between Ryan and my patients," she says.

"Shannon has been there most of the time, but she’s a nurse and has patients at home, so she has been going back and forth so she can take care of them," Reed says. "I’ve been able to do some work from my laptop."

Shannon’s husband, Clint, was in Houston for the surgery.

"We are all a family and Clint is terrific with Ryan," Reed adds.

Other friends and family members have traveled to Houston to lend their support. All keep track of Ryan’s progress on Facebook.

"Everyone has been amazing," Reed says, mentioning a longtime friend, Murry Burkhart of Plainview, who went to Houston for Ryan’s surgery.

"He came down the day of the surgery and just sat all day in the cafeteria, waiting for one of us to go and give him an update. He said he was just here for us if we needed anything . . . just an amazing friend."

Ryan has a large extended family. Her grandparents are Tim and Sue Johnson of Plainview (Reed’s parents) and Dee Lawson of El Paso and Ron and Patsy Wimberley of Lubbock (Shannon’s parents). Clint’s parents are Ken and Lana Overland of Littlefield.

Ryan is passing the time when she isn’t in physical therapy with a variety of hobbies.

"She is very happy, always smiling," Reed says of his daughter’s personality. "She is fun-loving and very funny — even though she doesn’t know it — and truly enjoys life."

"She loves to draw, read, make those little beaded necklaces and bracelets and she really loves her Legos."

Shannon adds, "And her DS (Nintendo)."

In the fall, Ryan will start the third grade in the Frenship ISD where she lives with her mother and stepfather.

The logistics of staying with a child during surgery and recovery, then rehab, can be staggering financially, but Reed says the main goal is Ryan and her health.

"The surgery is taken care of by Shriners, and in the beginning we had a hotel just down the street, but that got expensive in a hurry. We thought we would only be here about three weeks.

"One of us always has to be in the hospital with Ryan, and when Shannon is here they let both of us stay in the room with her, which has helped. We’re handling things the best way we know — one day at a time.

"This is about Ryan," he adds, "and everything else seems really small in comparison."

Reed says that her future prognosis is unknown.

"Honestly, only time will tell. We may or may not have to have more surgery. (Once we are through this one) we come back in a year to remove the hardware from her femurs, and at that point we will know more."

"We’re blessed. I can’t imagine a life without Ryan. She’s just been a billion blessings to us."